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Syllepsis

Syllepsis

Here’s one way to achieve a dramatic or humorous effect concisely, another tool in the writing repertoire, the syllepsis:

“You held your breath and the door for me.”

—Alanis Morissette

"Miss Bolo rose from the table considerably agitated and went straight home in a flood of tears and a sedan chair."

—Charles Dickens

"You are free to execute your laws and your citizens as you see fit."

—Star Trek: The Next Generation

“We must all hang together, or assuredly, we will all hang separately.”

—Benjamin Franklin

“… as he hastened to put out the cat, the wine, his cigar and the lamps. … She lowered her standards by raising her glass, her courage, her eyes and his hopes. … She made no reply, up her mind, and a dash for the door.”

"Vegetarianism is harmless enough, though it is apt to fill a man with wind and self-righteousness."

—Robert Hutchinson

"She tracks sand in as well as ideas, and I have to sweep up after her two or three times a day."

—Elwyn Brooks White

“When I address Fred, I never have to raise either my voice or my hopes."

— Elwyn Brooks White

"We consumers like names that reflect what the company does. We know, for example, that International Business Machines makes business machines, and Ford Motors makes Fords, and Sara Lee makes us fat."

—International Herald Tribune

These syllepses apply one word to others in a different sense for a dramatic or humorous effect. The syllepsis and zeugma are similar literary devices with one being grammatical and the other being ungrammatical (but O.K. because style). There is confusion on which should be which because the two actually switched definitions when being adopted into English literature. Because of this confusion, some say the terms are now mostly interchangeable.